Figure 1.--We notice standard printing on the bottom front of the card below the image which was pasted on the card. The standard approach was to have the studio name and location. This primarily meant the name pf the studio, often in fancy lettering on the left. And on the right was the city and state, sometimnes the stree address. A new styled mount with the informatiion in the center appeared in the 1890s. This portait was taken in 1897.

We notice standard printing on the bottom front of the card below the image which was pasted on the card. Here we are talking about the standard 19th-century cabinet cards,not the new styles that appeared after the turn-of-the 20th century. The standard approach was to have the studio name and location. This primarily meant the name pf the studio, often in fancy lettering on the left. And on the right was the city and state, sometimnes the street address. This format was very common from the first cabinet cards in the 1860s through the 1890s. Not all cabinet cards were done like this, but a very large percentage of American cabinet cards conformed to this approach. The level of conformity is interesting given the huge number of photgraphic studios spread all over the country. Of course there were a smaller number of companies that supplied the mount card stock. We notice the appearance of more variation in the 1890s, epecially during the second half of the decade. We note that sometimes a kind of enbmossing where the letters were punched down below the surface of the card. This innovation appeared in the 1890s. The 1897 Chicago portait on the oprevious page is an example. an example here. One of the new approaches was to put the studio name and location in the center (figure 1). We also notice a new kind of printing with the studio and ciy combined. This was both embossed and printed. We notice many chnges in cabinet cards after the turn-of-the 20th century,but this new style of doing the studio name wa commonly used on the new styles of cabinet cards.

Standard Front Printing (1866-99)

We notice a few types of standard printing on the bottom front of the card below the image which was pasted on the card. The standard approach was to have the studio name on the left and location on the right. This primarily meant the name of the studio, often in fancy lettering on the left. And on the right was the city and state, sometimnes the street address was added. Lettering styles vsried. We see both fancy caligraphy and plain lettering, but the basic format of studio name and city was very commom. This format was very common from the first cabinet cards in the 1860s through the 1890s. Not all cabinet cards were done like this, but a very large percentage of American cabinet cards conformed to this approach. The level of conformity is interesting given the huge number of photgraphic studios spread all over the country. Of course there were a smaller number of companies that supplied the mount card stock. The caligraphy cards with a kind of logo for the studio seems the most common. We see these formats very commonly during the 1860s-90s and even a few after the turn-of-the century, mostly in the early-1900s (1900-05).

New Styles of Front Printing (1895-99)

We notice the appearance of more variation in the 1890s, epecially during the second half of the decade. This is a relatively short period, but it was precursor of the more sustanial changesc to come in the 1900s. And thgroughout the period we also see the old style front prinying on the cabinet cards. We note that sometimes a kind of enbmossing where the letters were punched down below the surface of the card. This innovation appeared in the 1890s. The 1897 Chicago portait on the oprevious page is an example. an example here. One of the new approaches was to put the studio name and location in the center (figure 1). We also notice a new kind of printing with the studio and ciy combined. This was both embossed and printed. We notice many chnges in cabinet cards after the turn-of-the 20th century,but this new style of doing the studio name wa commonly used on the new styles of cabinet cards. Thee new styles were not as common as the okd styles, but we do see some,

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Created: 8:26 AM 3/18/2010
Last updated: 10:40 AM 6/25/2012